Kate Boggiano in the News
March 13, 2008 - The Chicago Fashion Incubator Story
As I'm sure you've heard (assuming you're in the know on Chicago fashion), Macy's is dedicating a portion of their 11th floor for the Chicago Fashion Incubator, which officially launched this Monday, March 10th.
As you might not know, the Stitches Fashion Program/The Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (aka Jason and I) have been part of the process of launching the CFI since day one. Some of you might be interested in hearing about it from our point of view, so here goes. This is the story of how the Chicago Fashion Incubator came about.
In the Winter/Spring of last year, a team of fashion professionals (Jason Felger and myself included), headed up by the City, partnered with Columbia College's senior decision making class in the Fashion/Retail Management school. The class was very helpful in conducting research for the Incubator. They split into teams, tackling areas such as resources, marketing, space planning, etc, and came up with a great plan to launch an incubator. The idea was based off of research of other cities incubators (Toronto, Dallas, etc)...which was pretty much the basis for Mayor Daley's interest in fashion in Chicago in the first place (ever since he visited the Toronto Fashion Incubator, he was interested in bringing something similar to Chicago, hence the launch of the Mayor's Fashion Council, Fashion Focus, and now the Chicago Fashion Incubator).
The research from the Columbia students was combined with more in-depth study conducted by Hunden Partners.
Alas, the ideas were set in place and we were ready to make this real. We started working with partners who donated their time and expertise to building the space, designing the curriculum, and setting up the CFI as a true non-profit.
In the Fall of 2007, the selection committee met with all of the applicants (which were given August and September to apply for the Incubator). We chose the six we saw the best potential in, and voila, here we are today (after a lot of construction and preparation of course).
We also selected Kimberly Prodan as the interim executive director of the Chicago Fashion Incubator. Kim has been a fashion buyer for Macy's for the past ten years.
When everything came together at last, we set a launch date (March 10th) at which the Mayor came out to speak about CFI and Chicago fashion in particular.
It was a great event; a celebration of a huge step forward in Chicago's fashion industry. There's a lot more to come from Chicago's fashion scene though, and these six designers will be the first of many who rise to success through the Chicago Fashion Incubator.
The 2008 class of designers at the Chicago Fashion Incubator are:
Glenn Mallory, whose 6ACE features classically designed garments created with leather and other natural-fiber fabrics
Kate Coxworth, whose Kate Boggiano features clothes manufactured in the United States
Agga Raya, whose AGGA B. offers classic silhouettes with an element of art
Lidia Wachowska, whose Evil Kitty merchandise is based on the character of that name
Yana German, whose YANA Collection is feminine with a modern flair
Kristin Rosynek Hassan whose organiK Revolution clothing is eco-conscious
*description of designers taken from the Chicago Sun-Times story
Read Sandra Guy's story about CFI in Monday's issue of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Labels: Chicago fashion Incubator
posted by Stitches Fashion Program @ 12:34 PM
